The present invention relates to a wedge press incorporating improved guiding of the wedge, wherein a reciprocatingly displaceable wedge acted upon by an entraining mechanism acts on a reciprocatingly displaceable ram, with the wedge and the ram having mutually-engaging thrust-bearing contact surfaces at one side of the wedge and the wedge and the ram having mutually engaging thrust bearing contact surfaces at the opposite side of the wedge.
Presses of this nature act, for example, as forging presses or impact presses and are preponderantly intended at this time for deforming metal. The wedge is commonly displaced by means of a crank, a piston-cylinder system or a flywheel-spindle arrangement. As a rule, the wedge is situated above the ram. It is envisaged, however, to position the wedge beneath the ram if the ram is upwardly and downwardly displaceable, or to arrange the wedge and ram side-by-side, with the ram then concomitantly moving reciprocatingly in a horizontal direction. In the case of presses of the kind specified in the foregoing, which have been known until now, the thrust-bearing contact surfaces of the wedge on the one hand and the press frame or ram on the other hand, are planar and lateral guides are incorporated between the wedge and press frame. The contact surface between the wedge and the ram, moreover, extends at right angles to the ram guiding system within the press frame, whereas the contact surface between the wedge and the press frame is angled with respect to the ram guide, i.e. has an angle differing from 90.degree..
If the wedge thrusts the ram forward for deformation of material within dies and the dies are not centrally positioned with respect to the ram, the ram will undergo canting, which in its turn results in canting of the wedge. Its elimination is intended, e.g. by means of lateral guides for the wedge. Quite generally, the wedge must be prevented from twisting, in the case of a wedge press, around an axis parallel to its slope, from turning around an axis extending in the direction of the ram displacement and from being displaced in a direction at right angles to the ram displacement and the required wedge displacement.